The Bhagavad Gita is a seven hundred verse conversation between Lord Krishna and the warrior Arjuna on the battlefield of Kurukshetra. In the final moments before the war, Arjuna felt that the war would kill many of his friends and relatives. He concluded that this has many harmful and undesirable effects. In essence, he is averse to performing the job of fighting the war. Hence, throughout the Gita, the conversation touches upon various aspects of karma (action, job in hand).

What is Karma

Though, references were made to karma is referred to on many occasions, the actual definition is in the eighth chapter. In response to Krishna’s assurance that one realises akhilam-karma (all aspects of karma) when one strives for salvation by taking refuge in Him (7.29), Arjuna enquiries as to what is karma (8.1). Krishna replies, “separation (sacrifice) of cosmic energy capable of creation (bhuta-bhava-udbhava-karo-visargah) is called karma” (8.3). This is a difficult explanation to comprehend, and the interpretations complicate the issue rather than providing clarity. Usual interpretations of karma suggest it to be noble deeds, creation or yajna, but all of them fail to satisfy what Krishna means.

While Krishna’s reply regarding ‘karma’ operates at the level of ‘being’, we interpret it at the level of ‘doing’. That’s why our understanding of ‘what we do is karma’ falls short, as different people keep doing different things at different times. On the other hand, any definition should be valid for every point in time - be it past when humans didn’t exist, present or even future; and for every entity.

Krishna used the word ‘visarga’ which is detachment or sacrifice. Karma is the detachment or diversion of the cosmic energy which is capable of creation. The closest example is the high voltage transmission line carrying large quantities of electricity (energy). When a part of it is diverted, that diversion is ‘karma’ and energising the numerous electrical appliances is karmaphal.

An easy way to understand is that living entities require energy to perform any karma. Karma is nothing but using a part of this energy at a given point of time.

Two parts of Karma

Any karma has two parts; one is the intent and the other is execution. In the words of criminal law, they are called mens rea and actus reus, respectively. For example, a surgeon and a murderer both plunge a knife into someone’s stomach. The surgeon’s intention is to save/cure, but the murderer intends to damage/kill. Death can occur in both situations, but their intentions are entirely opposite. While the focus of the law is on execution, contemporary moral literature encourages us to have noble intentions. But Gita exhorts us to transcend beyond intentions.

This is reflected when Krishna encourages us to have pursuits free from kaam (execution) and sankalp (intention) - ‘kaam-sankalp-varjitah’ (4.19). Krishna explains about someone who has sankalp in the mind, but restrain organs of action and says, “The individual who forcefully controls the organs of action, but whose mind rotates around thoughts of sense objects is a hypocrite and is deluding himself” (3.6). Krishna’s focus is about the internal purity and balance at the level of mind. He mentions this aspect as ‘Yogah Karmasu Kaushalam’ (every action is harmonious in yoga of equanimity) (2.50).

Causes of Karma

Krishna elaborates on karma and says, “The seat, karta (doer), various instruments, divergent functions and daivam (divinity) are the five causes for accomplishment of all actions. Whatever action a man performs by body, speech or mind, whether right or wrong, these five are its causes. One of lower intellect, viewing through a poor understanding thinks of the ‘self’ alone as doer, he sees not” (18.13 to 18.16).

The seat is translated as the human body in our context and without the body, we cannot perform any karma. The nature and type of instruments change with time, like the invention of machines for manufacturing, computers, car, airplane etc. Existence offers various activities using these instruments.

Daivam or intervention of divine force, is the fifth cause of karma. This is certainly a mysterious cause, beyond the comprehension of our senses. Daivam is the reason that karmas performed under similar circumstances yield different results, creating confusion.

We can’t escape karma

The core of the Gita is Krishna’s clarification, “Perform your obligatory actions, as action is superior to inaction; and even the maintenance of your body would not be possible by inaction (3.8). Just by avoiding karma, one can’t attain nish-karma (action-lessness) and one cannot attain siddhi (perfection) by mere renunciation” (3.4). It is doing our best in any given circumstance. Krishna gave many paths to master this. Krishna assures us that by performing karma (actions) without attachment, one reaches the supreme (3.19) and gives the example of King Janak who attained perfection by action alone (3.20). Krishna emphasises the point that a king who lives in luxuries and has several responsibilities can also attain the supreme by performing all actions without attachment, implying that we too can similarly reach the supreme, irrespective of our circumstances. This is the path of performing actions without attachment.

We assume a sanyasi (renunciant) to be the one who has renounced all karmas. Krishna presents a complete paradigm shift regarding renunciation and says that one should always be a nitya-sannyasi (perpetual renunciant), i.e. one who neither hates nor desires; is free from the pairs of opposites (dwandwa-atheeth) and is liberated from all entanglements (5.3). The second path is to renounce hatred. This could be towards anything that goes against our beliefs like religion, caste or nationality. Hatred could be towards our profession, people or the way of things around us. It is important to see the oneness in apparent contradictions. A nitya-sannyasi renounces desire along with hatred.

Our usual tendency is to label all karmas (actions) as good or bad and we want to drop undesirable karmas. Instead, we should renounce labelling residing in us rather than our external karmas. In fact, there is no real renunciation of karmas as we renounce one karma to end up doing another one under the influence of our gunas. Krishna further says, “That state which is reached by the sankhya is also reached by the yogi. He has truth who beholds as one both sankhya (awareness) and yoga (5.5). But renunciation is hard to attain without actions; a sage, well established in yoga quickly attains Brahma” (5.6). Karmas are like barometers to help us gauge how much hatred and desire we carry. Hence, Krishna encourages performing unmotivated karmas rather than renouncing them.